Jealous Types
by steelsilkfan
Summary: Three people are entangled in an incredibly awkward love triangle. None of them see the love triangle as having quite the same shape. Full of swears, because Kacchan.
1. Like a Fucking Pavlovian Dog

**A/n:** This story will be told in three parts and chronicle the mostly PG-13 angsty drama of a love triangle. The love triangle is probably not what you're thinking it is. The story was partly inspired by one of my favorite manga, _Katakoi Triangle_ , and if you've read it you may understand why once you've finished at least one chapter. Please enjoy.

* * *

It was during the sports festival that Bakugo Katsuki reached the peak of his lifelong crisis of sexuality.

After all, it'd already taken him fourteen fucking years to accept the weird feelings he got around Midoria Izuku. It hit him halfway through their last year of middle school: that sense of unease, the embarrassment he felt when the other boy showed him kindness, that was a crush. He had a crush on Midoriya fucking _Deku_ , for shit's sake.

Which definitely meant he was gay.

Katsuki found this utterly unacceptable. _I'm going to UA_ , he told himself all year, sneering at the boy who'd been making his heart twist for ten years. _I'm going to the one school that Quirkless nerd could never get into and become the world's greatest hero and leave this whole shitty town in the dust._

That was not, in fact, how things went down, and Katsuki was forced to spend every single day in the same class as the not-so-Quirkless nerd who turned out to have a Quirk that made Katsuki entirely uncomfortable in his jeans. (He wore loose, baggy pants for A Reason.)

 _Okay, fine_ , he spat at himself in the bathroom mirror one morning, the week after that fucking nerd beat him in the anti-personnel assignment. He'd spent the entire weekend reliving the way Deku'd thrown him, just totally laid him the fuck out, and his heart jumped into his throat every time. _I get it, God or fate or whatever punk is reckoning with me. I'm gay. I get it._

After all, he'd never given girls or women a second thought. Like the gravure models in the magazines some of his middle school classmates snickered over behind the school storage room. The soft curves of the models in the photos did nothing for him – but strength? That made his heart race. Photos of shirtless heroes in Men's Fitness, shitty YouTube videos with titles like "Eight Weeks to Endeavor's Shoulders" – fuck, even the formless metaphorical strength Deku showed in the face of danger.

 _Bravery_ , he reminded himself. Deku's internal strength was properly called bravery.

The point, anyway, was that when he couldn't tell the difference between wanting to be _like_ Deku or being _with_ Deku. _Shit, I_ have _to be gay._

But a year after the thought first occurred to him, weeks after he'd resigned himself to lifelong celibacy because he'd rather die than try to make a move on fucking _Deku_ and he'd probably never feel quite the same way about anyone else, his life was upended again.

He was matched against one of his female classmates in one of the later rounds of the sports festival, at which point the guys in his class started giving him shit. _Go easy on her_ , a couple of the boys told him. _What kind of guy goes all-out against a girl?_

 _Fucking amateurs_ , Katsuki thought. _Once you get into UA, you're not boys and girls anymore. You're heroes in training._

And he was matched against one of the classmates he least wanted to fight.

To an outsider, it looked like a totally lopsided fight, and it was true that Katsuki's Quirk had a lot more combat power than Uraraka's. But he'd been in a fight with her before, during the same class assignment that gave him uncomfortable dreams about getting thrown around by Deku for weeks, and he knew that what made Uraraka Ochako formidable wasn't her Quirk. It was her cleverness, the innovative way she used her Quirk, and the lengths she'd go to in order to obtain what she wanted.

 _She's like Deku that way_ , Katsuke thought on his way into the arena. _And we all see how that turned out. Fucking Deku._

Uraraka didn't disappoint him, either: he could feel her murderous intent from the other end of the field. But he also saw a layer of fear that disappointed him. "If you're gonna back down, do it now," he told her. _If she's just gonna bitch out and cower under a rock or something, may as well just let her quit now._ "Cuz crying uncle later won't cut it."

Her face showed no flash of relief or added tension. Instead, as soon as the announcer called the start, she charged straight at him.

"Backing down's not an option here!" she snarled, her eyes filled with the same determination Katsuki saw in Deku's eyes, the same determination that reflected back from his bathroom mirror at home.

And she never backed down. Not once.

Not when he created an explosion directly in her face. Not when he knocked her halfway across the arena, or when the crowd started jeering that he was fighting her too harshly. Her response to his defensive blows were snarling replies he'd expect out of someone more like himself than the person his classmates described as a "delicate, sweet girl."

And in the end, as he stood in the wreckage of her attack while watching her collapse, he felt a strange mix of confusion and relief. _If there was more in this environment to work with, I might've been crushed_ , he thought. As a pair of robots hauled her off to Recovery Girl, he felt his suspicions confirmed. _I was right. She's fucking just like Deku, the lengths they'd go to. Passing out or crushing themselves. He probably told her exactly what she had to do._

He accused Deku of just as much, but the other boy just stared at him. "Uraraka came up with everything, just to beat you. So if it really was a lot of trouble for you, that was Uraraka messing with you."

And Katsuki's fucking traitor of a heart twisted in his chest.

He froze in the middle of the hallway. _What the fuck?_ Seeming satisfied, Deku turned and scampered off, leaving Katsuki blinking like an idiot in the corridor as he wondered about the feelings Uraraka left him entangled in. The sensation wasn't even a little unfamiliar – he'd been feeling it almost his whole fucking life – but he'd only ever felt that way about the clueless nerd who'd dropped the fucking bomb and escaped.

 _Must be a mistake. She's a girl._

That was what pissed him off so much when Kaminari smirked at him after his match. "Nice job blowing up that frail little girl."

There was nothing he could possibly have retorted without revealing some sort of feelings he couldn't parse himself, so instead Katsuki grunted in the other boy's direction and threw himself into a chair. "Nothing frail about her," he muttered.

He was certain it was a mistake, that it was a one-time thing that would never cross his mind again. But like a fucking Pavlovian dog, his traitor-ass body quickly conditioned itself to Uraraka's presence, twisting his heart (among other things) when he saw her. When she passed him in the halls, he heard a phantom of her declaration to never back down. As she performed drills in class, he remembered how she'd appeared like a phantom at his back. When he caught flashes of her hardheaded, aggressive side she kept hidden so well, he couldn't help thinking of the way she'd glared at him with the promise of murder in her eyes.

And when he saw her with shitty Deku, grabbing his sleeve or smiling at him or standing half a step too close, Katsuki turned into a raging mess.

What made his rage even worse was being unable to tell whether he was angry that she was too close to the guy he liked or whether he wanted her to get that close to him.

Sometimes, he took his rage out on Kirishima. (Who, for all intents and purposes, was nice and safe; Kirishima was a nice guy, but he lacked whatever special something made Deku so appealing.) Sometimes he took it out on random trash cans he saw on the street, or barked at randos passing by. But he usually took it out on himself. His writhing feelings for Deku hadn't faded, so what was this about Uraraka, anyway?

He punched his bedroom wall. _I don't know who I am anymore._

* * *

 **A/n:** Okay, friends, the time has come to round out the other two points of the love triangle. Let me know what you think in the reviews and tell me if you'd rather see Ochako or Deku in chapter 2.


	2. Whatever's at Hand

**A/n:** My precious daughter.

* * *

Pretty much everyone in 1-A had at some point speculated on what was going on between Midoriya-kun and Bakugo-kun. Iida-kun said the boys' reigning theory was a friendship gone sour; Ochako knew the girls' widely-held belief was very different.

"Doesn't Deku-kun have a crush on Bakugo?" Momo asked.

Ochako thought she might die.

"Isn't he kind of obvious about it?" Mina was pulling a brush through her hair to little avail, as she usually did after any class activity that got them sweaty. "He's kinda always like 'Kacchan's so cool, his Quirk is so great, I want to catch up with Kacchan's greatness,' blah blah blah."

Ochako was definitely going to die.

"He might not realize," Tsu pointed out. "Boys are emotionally immature sometimes."

 _Of course the first boy I get a crush on totally has a crush on the actual opposite of me_ , Ochako thought.

She'd had a bit of a thing for Midoriya-kun since he protected her from that robot during the entrance exam. That was sort of romantic, right, for a hero to save a girl from danger on her first day of high school? (Exams weren't technically the same as the first day of school, but they were close enough.) And even more romantically, he'd hurt himself trying to protect her. She had read a manga with that exact plotline on the train to the exam.

(In a manga, the heroine usually used her Healing Quirk to help the injured hero and usually didn't end up having to save the hero from falling to her death. Ochako ignored that part, though, because the heroines usually weren't girls who grew up around their dads' construction sites, and anyway a girl had to use whatever she had at hand during times like those.)

So there she was, in a stupidly shojo manga-like situation, and the boy who could be her own (shojo romance manga) hero had the worst and most obvious crush on the scariest delinquent in the school.

Ochako didn't really have anything against Bakugo-kun, except when he was mean to Deku-kun. Which was often. Her most uncharitable, most secret thoughts came at times like that, when Bakugo-kun called him names and generally treated him worse than trash on the street.

 _If Bakugo-kun keeps this up, maybe Deku-kun will forget about him and notice me._

This was a horrible thought. A terrible thought. Ochako always mentally apologized to her parents for being a daughter who thought about things like that.

When it appeared that no amount of verbal abuse might end Deku-kun's still-obvious crush, Ochako decided to pursue a different tactic. Deku-kun really liked strong heroes and strong Quirks.

 _So I just need to become stronger,_ she realized. _Then he'll look at me._

Compared to Bakugo-kun, though, Ochako had such a long way to go. His Quirk was so powerful, and his trajectory to becoming a top hero – and someone worthy of Deku-kun's admiration – was so clear and simple. By the time the sports festival began, it would have been fair to suggest Ochako was violently jealous of Bakugo-kun. Not that she'd admit it in front of her classmates. But she would totally admit it to herself, and that was the first step.

That jealousy was probably why she wasn't as afraid of Bakugo-kun as the other girls (and some of the boys) were. After all, it was difficult to be afraid of someone she wanted to wreck. And it was probably the reason she didn't lose her shit when her first match in the sports festival put her up against him.

Because she was scared, sure, but she also burned with determination.

 _He'll be watching this match super close_ , she thought. _I can get attention from agencies and from Deku-kun. It's my chance to get two of the things I want. And Bakugo-kun will be the only one in my way._

"Oh, man, Bakugo's up against that cute girl." A pair of boys were walking past the room where Ochako waited for the match.

"Who?"

"Uraraka – you know. The really cute one from 1-A. The one who looks all soft and gentle."

"Oh, that one. Shit, what's someone like that even doing in the Hero track? Wouldn't she just be a liability?"

Their conversation faded as they walked away, but Ochako felt like they'd punched her straight in the gut.

 _Cute. Soft. Gentle. What's someone like that even doing in the Hero track?_

It wasn't much of a surprise that other kids at UA looked down on her. She wondered herself sometimes what she was doing in the Hero track. She wasn't powerful, she never would be powerful –

 _Someone like me could never compare to Bakugo-kun._

As they waited for the signal, she stared across the arena at Bakugo-kun, the same thought repeating in her head. He tilted his chin up slightly, appraising her. "If you're gonna back down, do it now, cuz crying uncle later won't cut it."

Her vision flared red. _Is he_ pitying _me?_

Uraraka Ochako had _not_ slogged her way through middle school, pushed her Quirk until she puked more than she ever had in her _life_ , or fought her way this far through the sports festival to be pitied by goddamn fucking _Bakugo Katsuki_.

In the end, though, Ochako's plan was blown away by Bakugo-kun's explosive Quirk. And he just _grinned_ at her in the end, as if all she'd done and the limits she'd shoved herself hard up against were just a warm-up game. "Time to get serious, Uraraka."

The last thing she saw before crashing to the ground was an expression of very real shock on Bakugo-kun's face.

A few minutes with Recovery Girl were enough to get Ochako back on her feet, and with Deku-kun's match against Todoroki-kun coming up, she felt like she needed to drag herself back to the stadium. _That was the worst_ , she thought as she shuffled miserably through the hall. _I messed up in front of Mom and Dad. And Deku-kun had to see me like that._

She was so miserable that she didn't see the person around the corner until she whacked straight into them. "Ah – I'm sorry," she stammered, then looked straight up into the face of Bakugo-kun.

"Watch where you're going," he snarled. Then he stopped. "They let you leave the infirmary?"

Color blossomed in her cheeks. "I know everyone thinks I'm all frail and fragile," she huffed, "but I'm still part of the Hero track. I'm not _that_ easy to keep down."

She glared up at him, the way he usually glared at anyone who came within a ten-meter radius, but for once, he wasn't glaring back, just gazing at her with a vague frown that looked more confused than angry.

It was kind of unnerving, and Ochako didn't know him well enough to understand whether this silent staring thing was dangerous, so she took a step back just to be sure. "What?"

"I don't get why people think that about you."

His voice was sort of quiet, and for once he didn't snap or snarl or even really blink that much. She'd never heard of this kind of harassment before, but she wouldn't be surprised by anything Bakugo-kun did at this point. "What do you mean?"

"People thinking you're some frail little girl." He shoved his hands into his pockets.

She glanced away. "I'm not like you, Bakugo-kun." It didn't even hurt to admit it. "Or Deku-kun. I'm not strong."

"Don't say that sort of stupid shit. If you weren't strong, they wouldn't let you in here."

Ochako blinked. Maybe she did have some sort of head injury, because it definitely just sounded like Bakugo "I'm the Best and Everyone Else Will Die" Katsuki just indirectly called her strong.

"I'm here because I want to be a hero," she said hotly.

That forced a chuckle out of him. "Don't we all." Then he did that thing again, the one where he tilted his chin up so he could look down on someone even if they were just about the same height. "But you better fucking haul ass the next two years."

"Excuse me?"

He grinned, one side of his mouth quirking up in a way that was weirdly charming, even though it made him look like a psychopath. "Cause I've been telling everyone else you're not frail. So you better show 'em I'm right."

Ochako swallowed the lump that suddenly formed in her throat. _But you beat me_ , she thought. _You beat me in front of everyone, and you'll be a top hero and you'll have money and you'll have Deku-kun and I'll have…_

Her heart twisted. _I'll have at least one person who believes in me._

"I will."

"Hah?"

She squared her shoulders back. "I _will_ haul ass the next two years. And I'll become a great hero on my own merit." Ochako leaned towards him, and to her surprise he actually leaned back, looking stricken. "But not for you. For _me_."

* * *

 **A/n:** Before anybody brings it up... yes, I know that Izuku tells Kacchan after the fight at the sports festival that Uraraka did everything on her own without his help. But Uraraka didn't hear him say that. He also offered her help beforehand, which would probably make it appear to her that he doesn't believe in her ability to do it on her own.

I have this whole rant about why Kacchan is (weirdly) the only character other than Eraserhead who seems to have an appreciation for gender equality, which I have subjected three people to in person at this point, so I acknowledge that this is a hill I would die on. xD


	3. Can't Keep Feeling Like This

**A/n:** Merry Christmas! I finally wrapped up my first multi-chapter fic in... probably 10 years? This is the final chapter of this particular story, and it features my best friend's pure summer son. (I wonder if she'll ever get around to reading this, lol.) Deku's angstily teenagering a lot in this chapter, but he's still such a good boy.

* * *

It was probably about time for Izuku to give up on Kacchan.

Not that it would be easy to move on from the object of a nearly lifelong crush. _I had a crush on Kacchan before I even knew what that meant._

The truth was that Kacchan had turned into more and more of a jerk as they got older, and besides, he had that whole macho thing going on, and Izuku was old enough and had learned enough about the world to understand what that meant for his chances at a romantic relationship with his childhood friend.

He glanced across the classroom, accidentally meeting Uraraka's eyes, then looked away before she could see that he'd turned into a tomato.

Okay. Uraraka Ochako had something to do with it, too.

The angelically kind girl he'd met at the UA entrance exam was nothing less than a shining light on days shadowed by whatever Kacchan was shouting about that day. Uraraka was clever, and she was selfless, and she was secretly as stubborn as Kacchan, and being both similar to and opposite from Kacchan made her that much more lovable in Izuku's eyes.

She even called him by the same nickname, and hearing Uraraka sweetly call "Deku-kun!" blended with Kacchan snarling "shitty Deku" until the nickname made his chest swell whenever he heard it.

By the start of the sports festival, Izuku was so deep into his crush on Uraraka that he thought he'd already given up on the crush he had on his childhood friend.

Except.

"You need a counter-strategy for Kacchan. One that uses your Quirk." He held out the composition book he'd done his best to fill for her. He admired Uraraka, respected the skill she'd shown in class – and he really didn't want Kacchan to hurt her. "I came up with this on the fly, but it might work!"

Iida seemed impressed, both by Izuku's speedy planning and his generosity passing it along, but Uraraka only gave him a small smile.

"Thanks, Deku-kun… but that's okay."

This was an unexpected development. "Huh…?"

Uraraka stared down at her hands, folded on the table. "You're amazing, Deku-kun. You do amazing things all the time."

Hearing the girl he liked calling him amazing made Izuku's heart soar – but he knew there was something else coming. It was clear in the way Uraraka stared at the tips of her fingers as if searching for something written there in fine print.

 _I'm amazing – but?_

"During the cavalry battle, I thought the easiest strategy would be to team up with friends." She paused, and for a horrified moment, Izuku wondered if she didn't even want to be friends with a person like him, someone so plain and so nerdy and so very useless. But Uraraka swallowed and went on, her voice wound tight. "But when I think about it, I was actually just putting my faith in you. That's why Iida-kun said 'I challenge you,' and all that. That left me feeling a little embarrassed about myself."

Her voice held far more shame than her words betrayed. Izuku's grip on the composition book tightened, his eyes widening as his friend got to her feet. "Uraraka…"

But she walked right past him. "That's why – thanks, but no thanks!"

There was fire and bite in her voice Izuku hadn't heard before. _She's changed so much since the start of the school year_ , he thought. Her back was starting to look less like a schoolgirl's and more like a hero's.

"Everyone here is fighting for their futures," she said hotly, stopping with one hand on the doorknob. "Doesn't that make us all rivals? So…"

He didn't know how to respond. Or if he should.

But when she turned around, a determined smile made her luminous. "I'll see you in the finals!"

 _That's exactly the sort of thing Kacchan would say_ , Izuku thought automatically. Then he hated himself for being unable to separate the two of them in his own mind.

The battle between the two classmates he longed for was entrancing, but Izuku had an uneasy feeling throughout the entire thing – not because Kacchan did anything irrationally violent, but more because he _didn't_. And Izuku couldn't think of a single reason why.

 _The way he's fighting is totally different than during class exercises_ , Izuku thought, pressing his chin against his hand as he leaned forward in his seat. Kacchan wasn't the type to take it easy on a girl, and that wasn't precisely what he was doing, anyway. (Unlike Uraraka, who looked like she was burning through her energy reserves and adrenaline all at once.) _You're so tentative today. Kacchan, what are you thinking?_

It was Eraserhead – Aizawa-sensei – who understood it first, and it was Aizawa-sensei's voice that struck Izuku's heart in half.

"She's come this far, and he knows her strength." The commentary silenced the crowd that was beginning to clamor for the referee to end the match. "His caution shows that he recognizes her as a worthy opponent."

 _A worthy opponent?_

His eyes, which had always followed Kacchan without fail since their childhood, shifted their focus to Uraraka, to sweet and beautiful and kind Uraraka, who was wiping away the sweat dripping down a face with murder in her eyes.

But despite her best efforts, Uraraka couldn't hold up against Kacchan's overwhelming strength, and as she was carried out of the arena, Izuku found himself nauseated. Not sick with worry so much as he was disgusted with himself.

 _I already decided I have to get over my crush on Kacchan_ , he told himself tersely. _I can't keep feeling this way._

Feeling rejected whenever Kacchan sent a scathing look his way. Feeling unworthy of being in Class 1-A. Feeling jealous of anyone Kacchan treated as an equal, when Izuku was certain Kacchan would never treat him that way.

 _His caution shows that he recognizes her as a worthy opponent._

If Izuku were like Kacchan, even a bit, he would want to punch something, punch his jealousy towards Uraraka straight out of his heart. But he wasn't like Kacchan, and his worry for his friend's wellbeing outstripped whatever other unsavory emotions ran through him. So instead of trying to punch something to relieve his frustration, he just headed for the prep room, resolving to dedicate that frustrated energy to his fight with Todoroki.

Besides, his friend had definitely paid for the fact that Kacchan saw her as an equal. "Uraraka," he murmured, his frustration dissipating into worry.

As he approached the staircase that led out to the arena, irritated footsteps made Izuku glance up from the floor and his concerns. He shouldn't have been so surprised. "Whoa, Kacchan…"

His childhood friend seemed more outraged than a guy who just won his match should be. "Yeah, what do you want?" he snapped. "Looking to die, scum?"

"No, I mean, I'm up next, so I'm headed to the prep room…" He swallowed. Kacchan always looked good after he fought. He just looked so _alive_ , vibrant. "And… congrats on your win…"

Kacchan just stared at him, bemused, so Izuku forced himself to look away. "See ya…"

He was almost clear when Kacchan's voice barked out an accusation. "You suggested that, didn't you. That freaking self-sacrificing scheme of hers."

 _I didn't do anything._ Izuku's shoulders slumped a little. _I tried to help her, but she ended up fine on her own._

Kacchan interpreted his change in posture as an admission of guilt. "You caused me a lot of trouble out there—"

"I didn't."

Izuku may have been unbearably jealous – jealous of how Kacchan's power motivated Uraraka more than he ever did, jealous of the respect Kacchan gave Uraraka and never to him – but more than jealous, he was honest, and he was pissed.

"All of it… Uraraka-chan came up with everything, just to beat you." He stared Kacchan dead in the eye, his face as serious as he could manage looking the way he did. Kacchan, for his part, looked almost shocked – although shocked at what he said or at the fact that Izuku had the spine to argue with him wasn't clear. That only made Izuku even more determined. "So if it really was a lot of trouble for you, that was _Uraraka_ messing with you."

It was almost worth it just for the look on Kacchan's face.

He turned on his heel and stalked off before Kacchan could say anything else. His heart felt weirdly full.

 _I'm proud_ , he thought, eyes widening a fraction. _Proud of myself? Proud of Uraraka._ He thought for another moment, remembering the battle he'd just seen. The way Uraraka had tried her best with her own strategy. Her ultimate plan, which may have worked under different circumstances. And Kacchan's final blast, one of the most powerful Izuku had seen from his childhood friend over the years. His heart seemed to swell with pride – not just pride in Uraraka, but pride in Kacchan, too.

A small smile eked its way on his face.

* * *

 **A/n:** Also, this is not a spoiler or really even related that much to this fic, but I bought Volume 10 the other day and I read it and it WRECKED ME and when Season 3 of the anime is out I'm going to be ugly crying and I might end up writing another OT3 fic about these good children (well, 2 good children and one who's doing his best) depending on how it all wraps up.

Anyway, that's it for Jealous Types. I really want to write more, but maybe something that's actually romantic next time and not just a bunch of teenagers angstily teenagering. (Man, let me tell you, I don't miss high school even a tiny bit.) I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope even more that it made you think about Uraraka and the sports festival. xD


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